To ask the Minister for Communities (i) how many households in the private rented sector are in receipt of Local Housing Allowance, through universal credit housing costs and through housing benefit; (ii) how many of those households have rents that exceed the Local Housing Allowance; and (iii) of these households what is the median average gap between the rent and the Local Housing Allowance, for each broad rental market area, for the most recent period for which data is available.

The Housing Executive has advised with regard to Housing Benefit:

There are 27,096 Private Sector tenants in receipt of Housing Benefit that are assessed under Local Housing Allowance rules.

In relation to rent exceeding the Local Housing Allowance, the Housing Executive is unable to obtain the exact numbers although believe the vast majority of claims will have a shortfall.

The Housing Executive are unable to answer this question as they are unable to extract details of claims that have a shortfall between rent charged by the landlord and that eligible under Local Housing Allowance rules.

The Department can advise that at the end of March 2022:

(i) There were 32,673 households in the Private rented sector in receipt of Universal Credit

(ii) Of these, 26,797 were in receipt of an LHA-capped housing payment that was lower than their declared rent

(iii) The median gap between rent and LHA for each of the broad rental market areas is shown below:

Broad Rental Market Area Median gap

Belfast £93.05

Lough Neagh Lower £105.84

Lough Neagh Upper £96.08

North £92.86

North West £97.76

South £111.23

South East £101.97

South West £108.33